Sean Montalvo (right) and Brandon Verley leg it out during cross country practice at the H.M. King High School track on Thursday. The Brahma cross country team will compete at a meet in Falfurrias on Saturday. H.M. King High School’s varsity cross country team only has a handful of runners (three girls and two boys) back from last year. Emmanuel Ibanez, Joel Cortez, Kelly Ryan, Rosie Gonzalez and Niki Tijerina will be tasked with anchoring the Brahma racing team this fall.

“I have high hopes for all of my runners this season, especially the two boys,” Head Coach Nilda Garcia said. “My returning boys saw what my former runners who graduated last year did and that will prove very helpful in showing them that they will have to continue working hard in order to get anywhere in our district; especially now that we have Corpus Christi Moody in there.”

Garcia’s returning female runners are also noteworthy, she said.

“On the girls side, Kelly ran varsity last year so she knows what she will have to work for,” Garcia said. “Rosie was a freshman last year and I really have high hopes for her this season, though she is still young but I think she will be able to step up to the plate.”

H.M. King will have to deal with the usual foes in District 31-4A this season alongside a couple of new adversaries following the University Interscholastic League’s statewide realignment of districts back in February. That shift sent Laredo high schools Cigarroa, LBJ and Nixon back to the border area and brought in Moody and Ray.

“The teams to beat in our district are Tuloso-Midway, Calallen (as always) and now Moody who has always had a tough team,“ Garcia said. “I know that the Laredo schools have always had very good individual runners but, but just the fact that Moody is now in there alongside Ray, I think this district will be just as tough.”

Which is why Garcia hopes her younger runners will take a page from their more experience teammates’ books.

“I am hoping my older runners will serve as their role models,” Garcia said. “The good thing about my runners is that they encourage and push each other while being a little family amongst themselves. They are their own cheerleaders, they pat each other on the back and that is what you need in cross country.”

All of H.M. King’s runners have been working out under the summer heat, since early August, which has lingered on.

“When the temperature hit’s the 110 mark, we try to stay as close to the school as possible in order to easily get some water,” Garcia said. “I try to keep my runners hydrated and tell them to drink plenty of water throughout the day, but we’ve been doing okay considering the heat out there.”

The Brahmas compete in Falfurrias on Saturday.